Reading stuff like this really makes me glad to be vegan.

Why ANYONE would eat crap like this is beyond me, especially as a “wealthy” tourist travelling in a foreign country.

My day was going well, until towards the end of the day, something happened that triggered a very bad response in my mind. Someone was doing something to a project of mine that one might believe to be subversive, rude and frankly speaking….VERY ANNOYING.

I was very much having a great day until this point. It was early evening. The weather was good. Work was fairly calm. Everything was great. Until this event happened.

For the next few hours, it seemed to consume my mind. I starting thinking about all the diabolical things this person could be plotting. All the potential worst-case scenarios. Things I didn’t do but should have to prevent the situation from happening in the first place.

I was mentally at war with myself …..all the while, trying to get work done.

I then decided to go for a long walk, get something to eat and get myself over the issue.

While out on my walk, a solution to the situation came to mind. It seemed so easy. I tried it out, and guess what, it worked!

1. Never doubt someone’s intention, only their actions.

Realize that now matter how diabolical or evil you think someone might be, they are acting out of a need for either love or connection. Therefore you can really never doubt someone’s intention, even if their actions weren’t the right ones. Internalizing this will completely change the way you react to other people. I focused on the person causing the issue…..and realized they really weren’t all that evil ;)

2. Find something positive in your current life to focus on

Think about something really positive that you have going for you. It could be anything. Really. Perhaps you had a good “hair day.” Perhaps you got a promotion. Perhaps your favorite flavor of ice cream was on sale at the grocery store. Perhaps your child made you laugh. You get the point. Think about this event. Get a clear picture of it in your mind and really feel the way you felt when it happened. Remember that feeling. For me, I focused on the fact that I am fit, healthy and have a lot of energy today.

3. Look forward to many more positive things happening in the future

Now, imagine all the positive things that you have to look forward to over the next 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 10 years and the rest of your life. Really stretch out all the positives. For me, I just thought about all the great people I will have the chance to meet over the coming years of my life.

Now notice how the little nagging thought will seem much less severe. It could even be gone, or perhaps have an entirely different effect on you. This whole process can take a little as 60 seconds. Try it out! It sure did work for me.

Had a great raw food lunch today at Chaco Canyon Cafe. A tuna-less tuna salad and hummus with flatbread. All raw! Had some wheatgrass as well. I also learned that they will be moving later this month down the block to a much larger venue. They should expanded hours as well.

If you have never tried food at an all-raw restaurant, I highly recommend it. It will open your eyes (and stomachs) to what is possible.

Whether or not you are a raw-foodist, have any aspiration to become a raw-foodist, or are even vegetarian…..raw food well prepared tastes amazingly good. Give it a try.

Post on Higher Endeavours about men and weight training. So many of us lack any sense of balance when it comes to working out.

The problem with this is that you are neglecting the majority of your muscles. There are approximately 650 skeletal muscles in the human body, but the average man only enjoys working out three to four of those, choosing to neglect the other 645 muscles. Now it would be extremely hard to consciously train all 650 muscles, but the average man needs to develop a more balanced approach to lifting.

Frankly, I have learned to enjoy big compound exercises like deadlifts, squats, bench press, pull ups, dips, rows and core work. I haven’t done bi/tri/ham/quad-specific training in months. Call me crazy, but I actually feel stronger than I ever have.

Alex has a nice post about John Chow.

I just ran across his site last week, and his header self-proclaiming “dot com mogul” definitely got my attention. I must have spent 10 minutes (an eternity in Internet time) trying to figure out what the story was about this guy. Was he a billionaire (my definition of mogul). Was he a multi-millionaire? Was he an early Google employee?

To be honest, I still DON’T KNOW.

All I know if he has a website writing tech reviews. Does that qualify you as a mogul?

I have no clue if he is a mogul or not, but am now intrigued enough to be a subscriber and reader of his blog (his posts are interesting). Marketing gimmick or not…he got me hooked! Nice tagline.

Wikipedia is one of my favorite resources on the web. It is clearly one of the most popular reference sites out there. Which is why I found this blurb referenced on Jason’s weblog strange:

“At this point, Wikipedia has the financial ressources to run its servers for about 3 to 4 months. If we do not find additional funding, it is not impossible that Wikipedia might disappear”. The warning by Florence Devouard, chairwoman of the Wikimedia Foundation was certainly dire, and Lift07 was as good a venue to make an appeal. But it is another illustration of how difficult it is to find the proper business model in the digital age, and more precisely in this case in what Florence called the “gift economy”.

The solution seems as easy as a couple text ads or a banner on the page. I really hope Wikipedia doesn’t choose to take some ridiculuous moralistic stand against ads. I would gladly put up with a few for free access to a constantly updated and growing body of knowledge on practically any topic. Wouldn’t you?

Since coming back to work I’ve developed a much lower tolerance for THINGS THAT WASTE MY TIME.

You know what I am referring to. Those moments of DOWNTIME while waiting for the bus, driving in traffic, sitting through boring meetings, talking nonsense on the phone, reading the daily news, talking with people who don’t know how to make a point, etc….

Getting away for a month I really learned how valuable my time was. There is so much to do and FAR TOO LITTLE TIME.

The funny thing is, it is not that anything MAGICAL happened during my holiday. I just was able to get out of the reactive mode I was normally in.

So many interesting people to meet, places to explore, skills to learn.

I’t like my PILOT LIGHT was turned back on after slowly fading out over the past few years.

Some people might call it IMPATIENCE. I disagree…..seems more like MOTIVATION to me.

Stopped by Whole Foods for dinner and some shopping. What an extravaganza. Their salad bar is an 8th wonder of the world.

TODAY WAS SANDWICH DAY. Build your own and freshly grilled. I was beside myself. Fresh bread, and anything else I wanted! It was Christmas in February.

I started naming off some ingredients to the “sandwich wizard” behind the counter. Before I got halfway through my list, she cried out “oh my god…..I just had the same thing for lunch!”

This was no small coincidence given that the first three ingredients were Ciabatta bread, Vegan Field Roast Cutlets (I mean…how many people actually order that?) and avocado. I figured I’d let it ride…..I’d have whatever she had. Turns out she had lettuce, mustard, grilled peppers and onions on hers. I did the same.

Seeing the thing on the grill…..I started to get nervous.

THIS WAS A REALLY BAD MOVE.

There is ABSOLUTELY NO WAY eat a sandwich with grilled peppers and onions. Everything slid all over the place. I tried putting the peppers on the Field-Roast side of the bread, no luck. I tried the lettuce side….even worse. I tried burying it into the bread…..hopeless.

Every bite and the damn sandwich would disembowel itself.

I adopted a strategy of eating the thing in a circular fashion….taking bites at 90 degree angles to one another. This at least kept the cutlet fairly well contained. It is all just took far too much work.

I eventually ABANDONED the grilled onions and peppers. They made a nice topping for my salad.

If you have ideas on proper strategy for eating a grilled onion and pepper sandwich, I would LOVE TO HEAR THEM. Meanwhile, I’ll be sticking to less exotic toppings.

I thoroughly enjoy reading Scott’s blog. One of these days, I will actually get off my but and do an ultra, but untill then, I’ll live vicariously.

His latest post about VO2 Max testing made an interesting point:

Resting metabolism caloric burn: 516 calories. This means that I only need 516 calories per day to maintain my body weight, or 744 calories on a typical non-workout day. What?!? That’s like two donuts!!! A typical BMI would say that 2200 calories is about right for my age, and a standard chart prediction for a trained athlete would have been closer to 1700 calories. Brian was a bit baffled at the low reading, but then pointed out that nearly all of those calories were consumed from fat and both my oxygen and CO2 levels were shallow. Basically, my body is insanely efficient at rest. Apparently I could fast for a week on the couch and only lose one pound.

Wonder if this is the case for most endurance athletes? The downside to efficiency is that once you stop training, you start putting on the pounds!

I was in the gym the other day, and a friend of mine (very big….~265lb former football player) asked if I wanted to workout with him a bit. I figured it would be good to do so. He is a certified personal trainer, and could check out my technique and give me a few tips.

At one point, he asked if we wanted to bench…to which I said “I don’t bench.”

This was the truth. I hurt myself bench pressing about 6 months and just never did it again. I stuck with dips and cable flys instead.

Well, I figured to give it a try again and see how I felt.

IT FELT GREAT! Looks like my injury was a thing of the distant past. WHY THEN HAVE I BEEN AVOIDING ONE OF THE BEST EXERCISES ON THE PLANET FOR UPPER BODY DEVELOPMENT?

Next, we went to do pull ups. Now, I have been doing pull ups at almost every workout for the past year. I never vary my grip in any way. Sometime I use a weighted belt for extra resistance, but that is it.

My friend immediately grapped a angled bar (used for cable rows), threw it over the pull up bar, and started doing these super-narrow grip pull ups. I never even thought of doing such a thing. I tried it out…AND IT FELT GREAT. Again, I was activating a different part of my back.

Next, we moved onto deadlifts where he showed me another tip (really squatting down super-low to engage more of the glutes). The day after my legs really felt it. I COULD TELL I REALLY STUMBLED UPON SOMETHING GREAT WITH THIS LITTLE ADJUSTMENT TO MY TECHNIQUE.

The point is….dont be afraid to mix up your workout a bit. Every couple of months, make it a point to do so. Don’t get in a rut and think that YOU HAVE TO DO YOUR ROUTINE. Changing things up will help you grow and make it more fun in the gym. In fact, if you get to the point where you start getting too attached to a certain routine….that’s a certain sign that you must start making some changes.

Just cool.

What do you think?

I was getting a presentation ready today, and was a bit stressed since I was presenting at 2pm and had yet to actually start the deck! I have just had too many other things going on. About 15 minutes before the presentation, and I had the most CRAZY-VIVID SENSE OF DEJA-VU I’ve had in years!

I knew at that moment that this WAS EXACTLY WHERE I NEEDED TO BE. Everything seemed incredibly familiar, down to the little doo-dads on my desk. I HAD BEEN HERE BEFORE. I knew everything would work out incredibly well.

Let’s just say that the prezo worked out just fine.

Peter has a great exercise. Don’t even try to say you don’t have time for it either. It takes all of 5 seconds.

Stop.
Breathe slowly.
Let go of your past – just for this breath.
Try to feel the air as it moves across your nose or your lips.
Breathe.
Don’t worry about the future – just for this breath.
Breathe again.

That’s it. You were in the moment. It’s really simple. Not easy, but simple. Repeat that simple exercise a couple of times per day for a week, and watch what happens.

If you have ever spent time swimming, you know HOW IMPORTANT ALIGNMENT IS. Until you learn the technique, even one length of the pool takes all the energy you have.

Without alignment even the most pleasurable things seem PAINFUL.

You can enjoy going for a bike ride, but if the seat is too low, your knees will start SCREAMING in no time. You could love baking cakes, but if you don’t have the right cooking utensils or ingredients, the process will turn into an ORDEAL. You might love gardening, but without the right tools, you will strain your back.

People have a tough time figuring out what really makes them happy because they do things that they think they should enjoy…but they aren’t getting the enjoyment! How frustrating! It’s because they are not aligning their life to allow themselves to have the enjoyment.

For example, I love my work, but lately my commute has been quite a drag. It was really draining all my energy. Today, with no meetings, I just stayed home…..walked around town a bit, and got a ton of work done in a couple coffeeshops! It was great. I feel energized and was able to focus on what really mattered, and get enjoyment from it. Again, work wasn’t the issue, it was all the other stuff around it causing the trouble.

The same thing applies to my workouts. I have a big black bag with all my stuff in it ready to go. Lifting gloves, journal, iPod, clothes, some food in case I get hungry. Everything I need is there. All I need to focus on is having a great time during my workout.

There is REAL POWER in aligning things so you can FOCUS ON THE FUN and not on the little things slowing you down.